California Poverty Measure

The California Poverty Measure is a state-specific index of poverty, modeled on the Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure, that improves upon traditional poverty measures. Unlike traditional measures, the CPM accounts for necessary expenditures like child care and out-of-pocket health costs, adjusts for geographic differences in housing costs, and includes tax credits, food assistance, and other non-cash benefits in the resources available to help families meet basic needs. The CPM reveals which groups and local areas have the highest poverty rates and how California's safety net is, or is not, successfully reducing poverty. The CPM is jointly produced by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality and the Public Policy Institute of California.